Designing a power supply circuit requires that some consideration be given to both the technical requirements and safety requirements for the application in which the power supply circuit will be used. For technical requirements, the power requirements of the load should be taken into account, so that the power supply circuit drives the load reliably, efficiently and safely. While reliability has always been a concern, efficiency is becoming more of an issue in view of emerging applications such as powering loads from batteries (e.g., mobile devices), powering loads from generators such as solar power arrays, reactive chemical cells, etc. The load must be driven in a manner that is safe: to operators, to the load, and to the power supply circuit. For example, many existing and emerging power supply applications require protection from power surge events (e.g., electrostatic discharge (ESD), lightning strikes, etc.), system malfunction and/or damage due to input power fluctuations, unexpected systemic failures (e.g., due to short circuits or open circuits that occur in the power supply circuitry or across the load), etc. To account for these technical and safety requirements, it is often necessary for a power supply circuit to be redesigned “from scratch” in view of each application, necessitating the expenditure of a significant amount of time and design resources.